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Mass Literacy

Scheduling, Staffing, Materials

Leadership in a multi-tiered system of support includes consideration of schedules and staffing that allow for comprehensive core literacy instruction, interventions and additional instruction, collaborative planning, data meetings, and professional learning. It also includes the provisioning of high-quality instructional materials for both core and intervention instruction.

"When schools adopt an MTSS framework, they underestimate the work it takes to coordinate and align MTSS practices and overestimate the degree to which MTSS practices are implemented fully and with fidelity" (Leonard, et al., 2019). Based upon the content of the MTSS Blueprint , consider these questions around resource allocation:

  • If MTSS is a focus, what resources have been provided to support it?
  • How is staffing prioritized to support tiered systems of support?
  • How have we organized our schedules to support tiered instruction?
  • Do we offer sufficient time for professional learning determined by our Literacy Leadership team?

Scheduling

Implementing all the components of an MTSS model requires sufficient instructional time as well as collaborative planning time, dedicated data meetings, and professional learning time. A major responsibility of the Literacy Leadership team is to ensure the building schedule secures and protects this dedicated time.


The schedule must allow adequate time for implementation of the core literacy block. If curricular materials have been purchased for core instruction, teachers must have adequate time to implement it, as outlined by the publisher.

In addition, time should be scheduled for evidence-based instruction and interventions to be delivered across all three tiers in order to meet the academic, social emotional, and behavioral needs of students. It is not appropriate to remove students from core instruction to receive intervention (i.e., supplementing and not supplanting tier 1 services; not removing students from lunch/recess, physical education, or the arts) (MTSS Blueprint ).

Staffing

Staffing, and the meeting time required of staff to work effectively within a tiered schedule, are a major consideration in MTSS. A key role of the Literacy Leadership Team, therefore, is to ensure that appropriate staff exists to provide tiered instructional support and interventions for all children who require them based on current performance.

Furthermore, the schedule must allow for ongoing professional development in Literacy and for regularly scheduled collaboration time among teachers who serve a shared population of students (MTSS Blueprint ).

The Blueprint also recommends that the staffing model and staff roles are designed to support implementation of MTSS based on students' needs:

  • Hill for Literacy Staffing for Small Group and Intervention Worksheet
  • Careful consideration is given to staff titles and duties to foster a positive approach to meeting the needs of all students.
  • Staff are (re)allocated based on student need annually and throughout the year (e.g., if additional tier 2 supports are identified as a need, or staff schedules should be adapted to offer the necessary supports)

Materials

The Case for High-Quality Core Instructional Materials

The Literacy Leadership team is also responsible for ensuring teachers have access to high-quality instructional materials from which to plan. Teaching is highly complex and demanding, and precious teacher time is too often spent searching for materials and creating curriculum. A 2017 RAND analysis found that nearly 96% of teachers use Google to find lessons and materials and nearly 75% of teachers use Pinterest to find lessons and materials. When teachers do not have access to great materials, they are forced to hunt for them which often leads to inconsistency and a lack of coherence. However, well-designed curricular materials can refocus teachers' workloads, deepen their pedagogical content knowledge, and increase coherence within and across grades (Chingos et al., 2012; Kane et al., 2016). Students learn best when their classroom experiences connect within and across grades (Taylor et al., 2015) and when assessment is used to differentiate instruction based upon identified needs (Muoneke, 2007).

Resources for Understanding and Selecting High-Quality Core Curricular Materials

Assessment Materials

The use of data is central to the MTSS model (Harlacher et al., 2014). Teams of teachers use data from multiple assessments to plan tiered instruction that meets the needs of students. The Literacy Leadership Team is responsible for ensuring that appropriate assessments are available to all teachers.

Intervention Materials

Teachers providing interventions also must have high-quality instructional materials from which to plan. Evidence-based instructional approaches are especially critical for students who are having difficulty and are assigned to receive additional instruction. It is not possible to purchase one intervention to be "the Tier 3 intervention" for a grade level or school, since the purpose of intervention is to target support to students at the root cause of their difficulty. The Literacy Leadership team plays the important role of assessing and understanding intervention needs across the school and identifying instructional materials that should be prioritized for purchase to meet the most prevalent needs.

References

Arden, S. V., Gandhi, A. G., Zumeta, R., & Danielson, L. (2017). Toward more effective tiered systems: Lessons from national implementation efforts. Exceptional Children, 83(3), 269–280.

Chingos, M. M., & Whitehurst, G. J. (2012). Choosing blindly: Instructional materials, teacher effectiveness, and the Common Core. Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings.

Coyne, M.D., Oldham, A., Leonard, K., Burns, D., & Gage, N. (2016). Delving into the details: Implementing sK-3 reading supports in high-priority schools. In B. Foorman (Ed.), Challenges and Solutions to implementing effective reading intervention in schools. New directions in child and adolescent development, Number 154 (pp. 67–85). New York: Wiley.

Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. (2015). Rethinking service delivery for students with significant learning problems: Developing and implementing intensive intervention. Remedial and Special Education, 36(2), 105–111.

Harlacher, J. E., Sakelaris, T. L., & Kattelman, N. M. (2014). Practitioner's guide to curriculum-based evaluation in reading. New York, NY: Springer.

Jackson, C. K., & Makarin, A. (2017). Can online off-the-shelf lessons improve student outcomes? Evidence from a field experiment. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 22398.

Kane, T. (2016). Never judge a book by its cover—use student achievement instead. Evidence Speaks report from the Brookings Institution.

Kane, T. J., Owens, A. M., Marinell, W. H., Thal, D. R. C., & Staiger, D. O. (2016). Teaching higher: Educators' perspectives on Common Core implementation. Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University.

Leonard, K., Coyne, M., Oldham, A., Burns, D., Gillis, M., (2019). Implementing MTSS in Beginning Reading: Tools and Systems to Support Schools and Teachers. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice. 34. 10.1111/ldrp.12192.

Opfer, V., Kaufman, J., Thompson, L. (2016). Implementation of K-12 State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts and Literacy. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.

Taylor, J. A., Getty, S. R., Kowalski, S. M., Wilson, C. D., Carlson, J., & Van Scotter, P. (2015). An efficacy trial of research-based curriculum materials with curriculum-based professional development. American Educational Research Journal, 52(5), 1–34.

Last Updated: March 2, 2021

 
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